THREE PEOPLE INDICTED FOR MANSLAUGHTER IN FATAL BEATING OF MAN WHO SHOVED WOMAN OUTSIDE BRONX RESTAURANT

  Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark today announced that two men and a woman have been indicted on Manslaughter and Gang Assault for an attack that led to the victim’s death. 

  District Attorney Clark said, “This was street justice at its most brutal: the defendants allegedly inflicted severe head trauma on the victim because he had pushed a woman down during an argument.” 

 District Attorney Clark said defendants Joel Hernandez, 23, Jenny Gutierrez, 22, and Hector Quezada, 23, all of whom reside in Manhattan, have been indicted on first degree Manslaughter, first-degree Gang Assault, and second-degree Gang Assault. 

 Hernandez and Gutierrez were arraigned on Tuesday, October 25, 2016, before Bronx Supreme Court Justice Eugene Oliver and bail was set at $100,000. Quezada was arraigned today before Bronx Supreme Court Justice William Mogulescu and bail was set at $50,000. They are due back in court on January 23, 2017. 

 District Attorney Clark said that according to the investigation, in the early morning of October 2, 2016, outside of the Parrilla Latina restaurant at 5523 Broadway in Kingsbridge, Donnell Soto, 36, allegedly had an argument with a group of individuals including Quezada, Hernandez, and Gutierrez. After Soto allegedly pushed Gutierrez down, Quezada punched Soto in the face and Hernandez and others joined, punching and kicking Soto in the head and body. Three individuals from the group remain unapprehended. 

 Soto was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital with severe head trauma and was declared brain dead on October 4, 2016.

 The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney John Miras of the Homicide Bureau, under the supervision of Christine Scaccia, Deputy Chief of the Homicide Bureau and Chief of the Gangs/Major Case Bureau. 

 An indictment is an accusatory instrument and not proof of a defendant’s guilt.